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For the first time in years, there was no Patrick Chan surrounded by microphones and tape recorders.

Scott Moir ambled through the Hershey Centre concourse without his skates or long-time ice dance partner Tessa Virtue, and no reality TV cameras in tow.

It became pretty clear Thursday morning at Skate Canada's annual high-performance camp this is a new – and potentially lower-key – national era of figure skating.

Rather than Chan and Virtue and Moir's combined five Olympic medals and five world titles, the face of the Canadian team has become veteran pair Meagan Duhamel and Eric Radford (two world bronze) and ice dancers Kaitlyn Weaver and Andrew Poje (one world silver).

“It's probably our biggest transition of athletes since I've been on board,” said Michael Slipchuk, Skate Canada's high-performance director the last eight seasons. “We have new faces and strong veterans. Tessa, Scott and Patrick were the leaders of our team but we still have a lot seasoned competitors and that's been a strength of our program.

“Now, the challenge is to see what they can do. In past seasons, we didn't have the strongest results in the Grand Prixs, but by worlds, we had the biggest (and deepest) team going into next year.”

That's the target once more – to achieve lift-off by the Canadian championships in Kingston, Ont., this January, then raise the bar at worlds in Shanghai, China, creating a few more household names along the way.

For nearly a decade, Weaver and Poje operated in the shadow of Virtue and Moir. Now, they're the tone-setters in ice dance and their Detroit-based camp has not been above asking the former Olympic champs for some knowledge.

That's part of why Moir was in the building.

“I think (Tessa and Scott) know everything there is to know about technique and artistry (in terms of) connection – all the things we want to improve,” Weaver said. “For either of them to see the programs and give us a little feedback would be extremely valuable. If they could do that, we would be very grateful.”

Keeping an open mind has been a common theme in Weaver and Poje's rise through the ranks. While most athletes draw a line between competitor and fan, they don't.

They continue to encourage the public to submit to them ideas for possible music and routines.

“Thousands of heads are better than just two when it comes to picking music,” said Poje, the 6-foot-4 Waterloo, Ont., native. “We put it out there just to see if there were some interesting things – and there were. Some off-the-wall things, too.”

Chan's success will be more difficult to immediately replace.

The 16-year-old world junior champ and Brian Orser-coached Nam Nguyen is the heir apparent, but this could finally be big-jumping Kevin Reynolds' time. He has been second at Canadians the past three seasons and doesn't want to finish his career as one of the most talented men never to win a domestic title.

“It's been hard to be in Patrick's shadow for so many years and I've been working to get closer and closer,” the 24-year-old from Vancouver said. “Now, there's this opportunity to become national champion and I want to seize it.

“I want to earn it. There's a lot of up-and-coming skaters and I'm not going to assume anything.”

Reynolds, plagued with narrow-shaped feet, is still struggling with ill-fitting skates. He recently went straight to the boot manufacturing source in Italy and is now huddling with Chan's equipment specialist Brian Holtham of Toronto.

Kaetlyn Osmond is working through the same puzzle.

In July, the two-time Canadian women's champ suffered a stress fracture on the same foot that hindered her last season. She changed her boot completely last week and hopes to start jumping again next week.

“It was a stressful season last year and Olympics wasn't even the highlight,” the 18-year-old from Marystown, Nfld., said. “Nationals was. After the injuries, I came back and skated my programs the best I ever I had in competition and to do that and (keep) my national title, it was a success.

“After that, I know I can bounce back from this.”

Now, it's up to her and the rest of the Canucks to thrive on the world stage – post-Chan and Virtue-Moir.

BIG RISK, BIG REWARD

Super jumper Gabrielle Daleman is looking to be the first Canadian woman to nail down a triple Axel this season.

Only a handful of female figure skaters in the world have featured it in competition, but it's becoming the trick of the future.

“I've landed a few this summer and we're going to show it this week,” the 16-year-old from Richmond Hill said. “If it goes really well, we're going to put it in the programs.”

Daleman, Canada's youngest Olympian in Sochi, was inspired to try by Axel artist Mao Asada, the reigning world champ who occasionally drops by her club to work with choreographer Lori Nichol.

“I would see her do the Axel and watch her technique and I said I want to be the first Canadian woman to ever do it,” Daleman, the two-time national silver medalist, said. “I've talked to her and she told me it takes a long of mental strength. To me, there's no rush. It's a hard jump and it takes time to learn.”

Canadian pairs champs Meagan Duhamel and Eric Radford, in the race to close the points gap between them and the Russians, have been working on a dazzling throw quadruple Salchow to unveil this year.

“We have the side-by-side (triple) Lutz that no one else is doing and that kind of put a spotlight on us when we came on the scene,” the 28-year-old from Lively, Ont., said. “Now to have something else, it's a lot of points if we stay on our feet. We want to push the sport and see more teams trying those things.”

TUNE TIME

Kevin Reynolds has achieved every slacker's dream. He has incorporated video games into his daily routine.

The 24-year-old Olympian will skate his long program this season to a soundtrack from Nintendo classic The Legend of Zelda, a popular adventure game that put him and Japanese choreographer Kenji Miyamoto back on the same creative page.

“I try to choose music that's different and keeps the audience interested,” Reynolds said. “It's definitely never been skated to before and I'm a huge fan. I wanted to pick something I was able to enjoy every day.”

Two decades from now, someone will be skating to Angry Birds or Candy Crush-type themes.

The ginger-haired Reynolds has a rocker side to him, too. He's resurrecting his AC/DC short program (Back in Black/Thunderstruck) from last year.

Two-time world bronze medalists Meagan Duhamel and Eric Radford are turning to a Montreal Canadiens' good luck song bird for their pairs melody.

They're skating their short program to a ditty made famous by Quebec singer Ginette Reno, who crooned O Canada at Habs home games during the NHL playoffs.

“She was a big prodigy in Quebec before Celine Dion came around,” Duhamel said. “She lives a couple of blocks away from me (in Montreal). I haven't met her yet, but maybe she'll hear through the grapevine we're skating to her music.